Ko Yano
Ko Yamazaki (山崎光, Yamazaki Ko, nee Yano (矢野)) is a kunoichi of Konohagakure. Ko is an only child. Background Little is known about Ko's childhood, but she implies that she had a normal childhood. Personality Ko often doesn’t speak unless when needed and retains a mysterious aura around her. She maintains an emotionless but calm demeanor. She also tends to speak formally even to close friends. As a child, Ko is noted to be observant. She doesn’t have difficulty making friends, but she doesn’t put in the effort to do so herself. She prefers to listen to others' conversations rather than talking. She is shown to be close to her parents. In Part I, Ko remains isolated from other students. She is often looked up to by other students due to her mature aura. She decides to pair up with Haru believing that the two are similar and could make Academy life easier. She is often shown to be the leader of Team Ren between the trio. After her parents’ deaths, Ko kept the information to herself as to not burden others, but Ren, Rika, and Haru found out and helped her grieve. In Part II, Ko becomes more level-headed and analytical where she seems to have matured faster than her friends. During the Blank Era, Ko is shown to be determined and headstrong to find her parents’ killer. Ko eventually develops romantic feelings for Ren, and she is unsure to deal with her emotions often confiding in Rika. In the New Era, Ko remains to be relatively the same as her late teenage self. Appearance In Part I, Ko appears in a pink high-collared shirt, a grey vest, dark blue pants, and blue sandals. She also has bangs that cover her entire forehead and waist length hair. Her forehead protector is tied around her head as a headband. In Part II, Ko wears a sleeveless black crop top with a mesh layer and pink accents. She also appears in baggy grey shorts, a grey sleeve on her left arm, a black apron, black knee-high socks, bandages on her right thigh under a shuriken holster, and black sandals. Her hair grows to hip-length while most of her bangs are parted to the side. In the Blank Period, Ko wears a purple vest, a sleeveless net shirt, a grey skirt with a black and pink layer, grey leg sleeves, and black sandals. She also wears forearm sleeves, a purple arm sleeve, and bandages on her left thigh and ankles. She carries a shuriken holster and a pouch on her left thigh and left hip, respectively. Her hair is cut short to waist-length and tied in a low ponytail by a red ribbon. In the New Era, Ko appears in a white shirt with black borders, a dark grey camisole, a pink skirt, black tights, white socks, and black sandals. She also wears a gold bangle on her right wrist and a pearl bracelet on her left wrist while her hair has been cut short to a collar-length bob. Abilities Ko is shown to be an above-average level kunoichi. She excels in stamina but weak with strength. Kekkei Genkai Wood Release (Mokuton) is the Yano clan’s Kekkei Genkai. Instead of acquiring Hashirama Senju’s cells, the clan mastered the ability to naturally summon this technique with earth and water release. Status Part I In Part I, during the Academy, Ko is an isolated student. She tends to work better by herself, despite the efforts made to make her more sociable. She recognizes that classmate Haru Fukushima has a dark aura that is often unnoticed by others. Ko befriends Haru by becoming training partners, and both are at the top of their class. Haru questions Ko why she decided to partner up with him. Ko responds vaguely to which Haru assumes she likes him before Ko immediately refuted. Haru didn't believe Ko liked him at all, but he did not care about the real reason. After graduating, Ko is assigned to a team with Haru and Rika Kobayashi. Ko and Haru had a well-developed chemistry and are believed that they could balance the team with the class troublemaker, Rika. Because of Rika’s extroversion, Rika easily befriends Ko. During the bell challenge, Ko plans to work together and capture the two bells together, one for each person. However, Haru proposes that Rika join them to see which two are the fastest. Ko hesitantly accepts, and the team works together. The three aim for the same bell resulting in a failure to capture a bell, but Ren congratulates the three for working together as they pass. Returning home from training, Ko receives news that both of her parents had passed away as a result of a failure to capture a missing-nin. She begins taking jobs to support herself. She never mentions the news to anyone, but Rika, Haru, and Ren notice her suspicious behavior and offer to help her. Ren even gives Ko a key to his house. She declines, but he insisted that she keeps the key. Although she was determined to support herself on her own, she sometimes would visit Ren. Sometime later, Ko, Haru, and Rika enter the Chūnin Exams in Iwagakure. All Genin must be in three-man teams to participate, and each member is split into one of three rooms for the first part of the exam. The first stage is a written test of ten questions. All ten questions must be answered, and each member can only fill a maximum of three questions per form. Forty-five minutes after the test began, a bonus exemplification is announced over the intercom to sacrifice a teammate to be eligible to answer the fourth question while the sacrificed teammate’s test will still be scored. However, it is designed to trick the participants. Team Ren bypasses the rule by stealing the fourth form from one of the disqualified teams. Those who did not write a name and answers all ten questions pass and move on to the next test. The second stage takes place at a waterfall. Teams are given either a Heaven Scroll or an Earth Scroll. They then have three days for the entire team to reach the base at the end of the waterfall with one of each scroll in their possession. Haru, Ko, and Rika receive the Heaven Scroll. Rika suggests stealing an Earth scroll from a team who is distracted. With curiosity, they carry out the plan. They attempt to steal from Team Natsu, an all-male team, who is already in a battle of Team Tsukiko, an all-female team. Rika successfully steals from Team Natsu, but the scroll was another Heaven scroll. Team Tsukiko lunges at Rika for the scroll before Rika tosses it toward Haru. Ko swiftly steals Team Tsukiko’s Earth Scroll, and Haru throws the scroll pass several trees. As Team Natsu and Team Tsukiko run towards the scroll, Team Ren escapes and makes their way to the base passing the second test. In the final stage, Genin must battle one-on-one where the victor will advance to the next opponent. Ko is paired up against Akira. After the battle, the proctor declares Ko’s victory, and she advances to her next opponent, Takeo Aoki. After fighting Takeo, the proctor announces Ko’s defeat, and Takeo moves on to the next round. After the exams are over, Team Ren is called to the Hokage’s office, and all are promoted to the Chūnin rank from their overall quick thinking. Ko then decides to quit all her jobs and focus on carrying out missions. Part II In Part II, Ko continues to perform missions where out of Team Ren, she has accomplished the most. Later on, at a festival, Rika introduces Hiroki Akita, Chiharu Inoue, and Nao Shimizu to their group of friends. Ko is surprised that Takeo had already met Hiroki and Chiharu is Kazuo’s sister. At the same time, Takeo spots his younger sister, Ume, with her teammates Leo Oono and Hikaru Fukushima, Haru’s younger brother, when they pass by and later join the conversation. Ko spends her time hanging with Akane. Ko is promoted to a Jōnin along with Akane, Takeo, Kazuo, Rika, and Haru right before the Fourth Shinobi World War. During the war, Ko is assigned to fight in the Third Division. Later she is shown to be possessed in the Infinite Tsukuyomi jutsu where she dreams of finding the man who killed her parents and defeating him in a long but well-fought battle. Blank Period After the war, Ko reflects on her life after her parents’ deaths. She does not have any existing grandparents nor close cousins to tell her family’s history. Coincidentally, Nao reveals to her that they are third cousins, where their great grandparents were siblings. Unfortunately, the Shimizu history records lack information written about Ko and her parents. Ko is also concerned about the events surrounding her parents’ death. She recalls that as a child, she was given a brief message that her parents had been killed but does not describe how or by whom. Akane is asked to join on Ko’s mission to collect scrolls from Sunagakure’s central library. While approaching the village, the two kept quiet. Ko speaks up, and they bonded over similar interests. As they finish retrieving the scrolls and head home, Ko reveals that she spends most of her time carrying out missions due to losing her parents two years prior and was forced to take care of herself. She decides to unravel the mystery behind her parents’ deaths asking Akane to assist her on the journey. Empathizing with Ko, Akane agrees and invites Ko to have dinner with her and Aya that night. Barging into the Hokage’s office the next day, Ko and Akane demand the records detailing her parents’ last mission. It was to infiltrate the Maeda clan in Shimogakure and was marked incomplete. Ko asks the mission to be reopened and given to her. The mission was hesitantly given to her but on a condition that she couldn’t travel alone. With limited choices, she suggests Akane to accompany her. The journey to Shimogakure became increasingly difficult as they approached closer, but their first ambush proved that their mission was much more difficult than listed. As they finally enter Shimogakure, Akane suggested that they hide their Konoha forehead protectors and settle as ordinary visitors. Researching the Maeda clan’s history, Akane and Ko found that Shimogakure’s system has been corrupted since Isamu Maeda, a member of the clan, had ran away seven years ago. In mass panic, the village’s shinobi made the search a large priority. In response, Konoha had sent additional shinobi including Ko’s parents to hunt for the missing-nin. Ko’s parents eventually tracked him down, but both had been killed in battle against him, and he escaped. Ko makes it her goal to defeat Isamu. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been spotted for months, and the village destroyed all trace of him. Ko decides to reveal herself to Shimogakure’s kage as the daughter of two of the victims killed by Isamu and demands to join the search. Akane chooses to help Ko, and they traveled to several villages for clues. A year after the start of the search, Ko and Akane return home as the wanted man was hinted to have retreated to Konoha. They were able to track a man fleeing from the Hokage office, but the man revealed himself as Kuragami and one of Konoha’s shinobi showing his forehead protector. He explains that he was given an S-ranked mission and began to leave the village. Soon after, Ko and Akane had received reports that Isamu had been seen in the Land of Snow. Ko prepares to leave the village, but Akane confronts Ko that Isamu would return to Konoha someday, and Ko should have some time for herself. Ko still insists to hunt for him but decides to take time off before taking off again. Giving herself a week to take a break, Ko first visits Rika. Ko learns that Rika has not heard from Haru for several months which makes Rika incredibly worried. Rika wishes that she could find him, but her job has become increasingly busy. Ko promises to inform Rika if Ko finds him during her search for Isamu. While visiting Ren, Ko reports her progress to him in hopes of discovering new information. Ren provides feedback but also expresses that he’s impressed with her tracking techniques. He also notes that it is difficult to find a criminal with many disguises and names and extremely proud of her talents. At the end of her break, Ko is accompanied by Ren for her mission. The two return a year later, and they got married before leaving the village shortly again. Sometime later, Ko gives birth to Miyuki, and Ren offers to raise Miyuki while Ko continues her search. New Era During the New Era, Ko works as a specialized nin primarily focusing on tracking missing nins and other rouges. In doing so, she is rarely in one village for too long giving her the benefit of traveling while working. Once in a while, she returns to check on her family and friends. Ko is later seen watching Miyuki’s Chunin Exams sitting alongside her friends. After the exams have concluded, Team Kazuo, Team Ume, Team Takeo, and Team Haru are all are promoted to the Chūnin rank. The newly-promoted Chūnin meet their parents and respective sensei at the entrance. Ren and Ko express their excitement for her. Trivia *The name "Ko" means "light" (光), while her family name "Yano" means "arrow field" (矢野). *Ko’s sexually is never determined despite being married to Ren. She is hinted to be asexual due to her lack of interest in intimacy. *According to the databook(s): **Ko’s hobby is brush painting. **Ko wishes to fight against Akane Kumosu, Rika Kobayashi, Haru Fukushima, and Ren Yamazaki. **Ko’s favorite food is guava, while her least favorite is pie. **Ko has completed 348 official missions in total: 120 D-rank, 91 C-rank, 85 B-rank, 42 A-rank, 10 S-rank. **Ko’s favorite word is "merit" (効, kou). *She likes ancient buildings. She dislikes technology. *Her favorite color is pink. *Her favorite season is spring. *Ko and Nao Shimizu are distant cousins. At the time their great grandparents were siblings, villages have not been established, and clans often fought each other. Nao’s great grandfather and Ko’s great grandmother were part of the first Shimizu clan members. *The Yano clan’s Wood Release differs from the canonical Wood Release used by Yamato. Compared to Yamato’s version, the Yano clan’s Wood Release is more plant and floral based rather than only wood material. *Due to previously maintaining several jobs, Ko is hinted to be a fast learner and skilled in many areas. **Some known jobs are bookstore clerk, waitress, maid, and gardener. Reference Rika Kobayashi belongs to Miryuu.pon on Instagram. Most pictures are also on Instagram. All bio information and the rest of the pictures can be found on Miryuu.pon's Tumblr. Category:DRAFT